The main reason why pirates were pirates has always and will always be the loot. Pirates were able to acquire astounding riches and wealth from simply knowing which vessel to attack. Much more went into knowing which ship to attack then just finding one. First, they had to know where to find the most amounts of ships that had reasonable treasures. One of the most famous spots for pirates to plunder was the Spanish Main . The Spanish on a yearly basis sent ships to move treasure from Portobello to Spain . Making it easy for pirates to know where and when to plunder a ship that had valuable treasure and where they could take their choosing to which ship to hit.

Deciding which ship to attack was key. To engage into battle meant that they were putting everyone on their crew to risk and the captain had to know if the treasure was worth the risk of battle. The possibility of missing or attacking the wrong ship was a horrible devastation to the captain. Most crews of pirates were in the business solely for the money and if the captain made mistakes that cost them money then that captain was not worth working for.

One of the biggest problems that pirates found when they acquired some loot was properly dividing it among all their crew and themselves. The doubloons were quite simple because they could just be divided into smaller pieces, but the diamonds and other objects that were not so easily divided proved to be a headache for the captain to try and divide it. This dividing process isn’t just a theory it has been proven there is actually evidence of division on some pirate relics and artifacts that are now on display at some museums.

When the pirates acquired all of that loot what exactly did they do with it. Most pirates learned very fast, because of the uncertainty of their business, to live for the present and keep a very low amount of money to keep from being looted themselves. Most pirates didn’t really save for the future they just lived like college kids for their whole lives. One pirate that saved for the future was Captain Kidd he has been given the credit for starting the pirates and buried treasure myth. More money has gone into trying to find buried treasure then what is actually believed to have been buried.